Well that was quick. Just a couple of hours after the European Union approved of Google’s buyout of Motorola Mobility, so does the Department of Justice. The difference here is that the DOJ also decided to approve of the recent joint purchase of patents from Nortel by Google, Apple, Microsoft, RIM and others. According to their verdict, it’s “unlikely” that any of these deals would hurt competition.

An interesting note is that the DOJ feels that Google will do a much nicer job in not suing everybody over patents the same way Motorola did. It’s probably wishful thinking, but it would be great to see that all manufacturers would easily license their patents with each other for the sake of innovation, but you know how that story really goes.

Sadly the drama and the buyout doesn’t end here. Google and Motorola now have to wait for the Chinese, Israeli and Taiwanese approval, so let’s hope they get the Western memo on time.